1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet conveying device including a drive roller caused to rotate about its own axis and a driven roller having an axis parallel to the axis of the drive roller and causing the two rollers to nip and convey a sheet and an image forming apparatus including the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is a common practice with a sheet conveying device included in a copier, printer, facsimile apparatus or similar image forming apparatus to cause a drive roller and a driven roller whose axes are parallel to each other to nip and convey a sheet in pressing contact with each other.
A sheet conveying device of the type including a drive roller and a driven roller movable away from each other to allow a sheet, jamming a sheet path, to be removed is conventional. More specifically, this type of sheet conveying device includes a front cover hinged to the casing of an image forming apparatus in such a manner as to be angularly movable about a shaft between an open position for uncovering the casing and a closed position for covering it. The driver roller and driven roller are mounted on the front cover and the casing of the image forming apparatus, respectively, and constitute an outlet roller pair for discharging a sheet brought thereto from a sheet cassette via a sheet path to a tray.
In the sheet conveying device having the above configuration, assume that a dimensional error occurs in the distance between the shaft of the front cover and the drive roller. Then, it is likely that when the front cover is moved to the closed position, the drive roller and driven roller fail to contact each other or excessively strongly contact each other, causing a roller shaft supporting the drive roller to bend. To prevent the roller shaft from rotating in a bent position, there must be enhanced the dimensional accuracy of the front cover, e.g., dimensional accuracy between the shaft of the front cover and the drive roller and the positional accuracy of the roller shaft of the drive roller, noticeably increasing costs.